New recipe?pasta con ricotta

I was watching David Rocco the other night and saw him make this pasta dish over an open fire stove outside in the Italian countryside. Oh my, the whole place looked like heaven to me. I can’t wait to get to Italy some day. Seems like it will be years before I get there but I can wait. So on to the recipe. He used fresh cherry tomatoes but I had those wonderful canned cherry tomatoes so I used them. I had whole wheat medium-sized shell pasta instead of his recommendation of orecchiette pasta and I did not have cilantro but fresh oregano. I think the dish turned out perfect in any case.

I am also submitting this recipe for the wonderful Presto Pasta Nights hosted this week by Sweet Kitchen. PPN is the brainchild of Ruth at 4EveryKitchen . Be sure to visit all the links!

Pasta con Ricotta

1/2 lb. of small pasta, shells or orecchiette (something to hold the sauce)

14 ounce can of cherry tomatoes

olive oil

handful or two of fresh oregano-chopped

6 ounces or so of ricotta cheese

salt to season

Set a pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta until al dente’. Drain but reserve about 1 cup of the water in a bowl. In the meantime, heat about 4 Tbsp olive oil in a 12 inch skillet with high sides and add in cherry tomatoes. Cook for about 30-60 seconds.  Salt and pepper to taste, if desired. Add in drained pasta and ricotta cheese and a ladle or two of the reserved pasta water. The starch in the water will help the sauce stick to the pasta and make it creamy. Stir until it’s all combined and cook about a minute or two longer. Drizzle more olive oil on each serving and enjoy! It was so delicious.

At present my kitchen is torn apart as the painting is going well and hopefully today we will have the yellow and red done. All that will be left is all the cabinets and trim work and a few doors. Those can all be done a few at a time but at least the walls will be done! I really love the colors so far.

This past Saturday we went to a local Italian American festival. It was fun but it was so hot and humid that we didn’t eat much. I actually came home and made the above dish a few hours later because we were suddenly hungry. My son Caleb wanted to try out the climbing wall, I know it has little to do with being Italian but it was an offering for the kids. He had fun. Here are a few of those pictures. I will write a new post in a day or two with more from the festival.

I was totally fine with him climbing the wall since he has done this before but he insisted I not cheer him on or yell “You can do it Caleb” at all! He said it throws him “off” but I really think he didn’t want to be embarrassed by his mom! hahaha

Thanks for reading and commenting. I love reading the comments more than anything.